To celebrate Halloween Live for Films is having a horror movie review each night in the 31 Days of Horror. You can see last years 31 days here. You can be involved by sending me your review of a horror film – new, old, good, bad, depressing, funny, disgusting, psychological. As long as it can be classed as a horror then you can send it over to me at phil@liveforfilms.com
Click here to see all the reviews for 2011′s 31 Days of Horror.
Today Richard Tan of Vinyarb reviews Splice.
One of the better cautionary tales of the horrors that can be unleashed when Man decides to play God. Splice tells of 2 genetic engineers Clive and Elsa (also lovers) who work for a pharmaceutical giant in mixing animal DNA to produce new species of creatures (mainly 2 blobs called Ginger and Fred), with the aim of extracting proteins from them that may help in combating diseases.
Not content with blobs (what can you do with them besides watch?), they decide to add a little human DNA into the mix in secret. And who would have known that that was the missing ingredient to creating Frankenstein’s monster? They named it Dren, and when Dren was just born, she resembled a big headed chicken. But due to her accelerated growth, she soon became a bald headed hottie.
As Dren continues to grow, Clive and Elsa decide that they can’t hide her at the lab for long, and decide to move her out to an abandoned farm owned by Elsa’s late mother. They start teaching Dren words and although she understands, she has difficulty relaying back messages, unless Clive can decode trills.
There are a few frustrating and tender moments as Clive and Elsa take on parental roles, trying to reign in their new charge. Things start spiraling out of control however, when Dren starts becoming violent, rebellious and even sexually responsive. Can they stop this growing hybrid from tearing their world apart? (Although, tearing their world apart should be the least of their concerns compared to tearing of their body parts apart!)
The 3 leads, Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley and in particular french actress Delphine Chanéac, who plays Dren, put in commendable performances to bring the characters to life and keep them grounded in reality. The effects shots were excellent, and deservedly won “Best Special Effects” at the Sitges Film Festival in 2009 where it premiered.
Overall, the film is hauntingly beautiful to watch, although the last act does descend a little into the usual horror fare.
